Nedric
by serialhugger
Summary: Nedric. Neville misses Cedric. An overheard conversation helps him to move on, even if just a little bit.[Reading order: ATAW, ATAH, Nedric, Nedric Side Stuff.]
1. Part I: Unshed: A Prologue

**Title:** Nedric

**Author:** Smurf

**Fandom:** Harry Potter

**Pairing:** Nedric (Neville Longbottom & Cedric Diggory- obviously).

**Summary:** Set during the Order of the Phoenix. Neville misses Cedric, with all of his broken heart; however, an overheard conversation helps him to move on; even if just a little bit.

**Disclaimer: **We the serialhugger collective do not own Harry Potter, or any of the trademarks and copyrights related there of. Smurf, as a part of the collective also does not own Harry Potter. No infringement is intended.

**Warning: **This fic contains spoilers, as have the other parts of this trilogy.

**Note:** When speech is shown in italics it means that it's not being said in the present, meaning that it is a conversation, phrase, etc. from the past, almost like a flashback of sorts.

**Dedication:** this fic is for Dead Uchiha who deserves some offering for her birthday, even if it is late, and hopelessly sad.

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**Nedric  
**_Part I: Unshed_**  
**

Neville Longbottom had not had the best of years. His boyfriend- though, he couldn't really call Cedric his boyfriend as they had only shared a confession and an all too brief kiss- had died. He had been murdered during the last challenge of the Triwizard Tournament by the epitome of evil, Lord Voldemort. Then he had been forced to deal with a sobbing Cho Chang, a guilt-ridden Harry Potter, and a well meaning Ginny Weasley.

Ginny wasn't so bad, she had simply placed her small hand on his shoulder, gave it a light squeeze, murmured a quiet, _"I'm so sorry Neville,"_ and said good-bye before heading home with her family where she would spend the summer- or so he assumed.

Harry had been out of sorts, but seeing someone die right before your eyes could do that to a person, and so Neville hadn't minded (too much) that the green-eyed boy hadn't bothered to notice that he was in pain too.

Cho was an all together different matter; she was a complete mess. Neville was positive that she hadn't stopped crying since she had found out about her dearest friends death, and he had found himself offering her words of condolence, and watching to make sure that her friends were there to comfort her, before he left to where his Grandmother was awaiting him.

Neville had cried as well, but he didn't have the luxury of having people to comfort him in his grief, after all, no one other than Ginny, his parents, and perhaps that tall Slytherin boy he had stumbled into- Warrington, he believed- knew of his deep seeded affection for the deceased Hufflepuff lad, so he refused to cry in public. His tears could wait until he was locked away in his bedroom, or when he was snuggled up against his mother in the hospital room she shared with his father. He knew that she wouldn't mind it really if he cried while resting his head in her lap; he'd done it before when he was younger, and even in her debilitated mental state she had offered him comfort, allowing him to lay there, with tears trailing down his round face, as she hummed an odd sort of melody he couldn't quite recognize.

Who better to offer a child whose heart was shattered solace than their mother…

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Thus ends Part I of Nedric, the next installment should be ready in another few weeks. I would like to apologize for not having this up sooner, as well as for the shortness of this chapter.

Please review. It makes me happy, and criticisms make me work harder, so I'd appreciate those as well.

Hugs and Oreos!  
Smurf


	2. Part II: Fifth Year: Beginnings

**Title:** Nedric

**Author:** Smurf

**Fandom:** Harry Potter

**Pairing:** Neville Longbottom/Cedric Diggory (shouldn't the title of this story be a dead give away?) though it's in the past tense.

**Disclaimer: **We, the serialhugger collective, do not own Harry Potter, or any of the trademarks and copyrights related there of. Smurf, as a part of the collective does not own Harry Potter.

**Warning: **This fic contains spoilers, as have the other parts of this trilogy; it also contains au-ishness.

**Dedication:** For SasukeBlade, & DeadUchiha (who let me know when something is good, and are kind enough to let me know when it isn't without being offensive) and everyone else who reads/supports the Nedric pairing.

**Note:** The dialogue for this chapter was taken directly from the fifth book in the Harry Potter series (The Order of the Pheonix) in the following chapters there will be dialogue taken from said book, as well as some from my own imagination. Please understand that I have taken the dialogue from the book to make this piece as canonically correct as I could, such is the strength of my anal retentiveness when it comes to this particular piece.

The following chapter is a short one in comparison to the other chapters that have still yet to be typed up (with the exception of the last one); this is because it spans only the train ride to Hogwarts, and the sorting ceremony afterwards. I took some liberties-- though not many-- and altered things to suit the fic, but I did the same to ATAW and ATAH and nobody really seemed too bothered by it. _(shrug)_

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**Nedric**  
_Part II; Fifth Year: Beginnings_

The beginning of Neville Longbottom's fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was long-awaited. He had spent a whole two months alone-except for the few times he had visited his parents- and though that was by no means abnormal for him, this time he had actually found himself wanting for companionship. So, when it had come time for him to once again make the trip to platform 9 ¾ he had shown more enthusiasm than he had for anything else in months. That enthusiasm, though, was short lived.

Though he had been excited about his return to school initially, now all he could muster was a sort of edginess. He would be back at Hogwarts. Back at the place where Cedric had died, where bullies like Draco Malfoy and his goons stalked the halls just waiting to trip him up while climbing one of the many moving staircases, or to blast him with a hex in between classes when there were no teachers in view, where Snape, dressed in his severe black robes would glare at him frightening him senseless with just that one look especially after he managed to bungle a potions assignment, and where a poltergeist known to the student body as Peeves played nasty tricks, like stealing his homework and hiding it just outside of the Slytherin dorms.

He had to remind himself that it wasn't all bad. Being back at Hogwarts also meant Herbology lessons- he rather enjoyed that particular class, and he was good at it too, if his instructor was to be believed. It meant incredibly good food- not that he wasn't fed well at home, because the food there was perfectly edible, it just wasn't quite as good as the fare that the school's many House Elves managed to create on a daily basis. It meant having friends… well sort of… he wasn't really a part of the Golden-Trio's inner circle, as that would have made it the Golden-Quartet, and somehow that just didn't sound right... But he did, in fact, have friends, just not any that he would call close. It also meant a moderate length ride on the Hogwarts Express; most of the time the ride was quite pleasant, and he could look out the window of the compartment he had settled himself in, Trevor in his pocket (until the little hopper decided to go exploring on his own) and enjoy the scenery as it passed.

Unfortunately for Neville, it seemed he wouldn't get the opportunity to do much scenery watching as every compartment he passed was occupied. It was the rides like this that made Neville rethink his position on the pleasantness of train rides in general.

Lugging around his rather heavy trunk- filled with text books, clothes, and all other manner of school supplies that he would require throughout the upcoming school year- while, at the same time, attempting to keep a hold of Trevor (who didn't seem to keen to stay tucked away in Neville's pocket) was something the sandy haired young wizard could have done without. It was an exhausting task, and he silently gave thanks that he only had to go through it a scant few times each year. If he was going to do heavy lifting, he'd much rather it have been greenhouse related. The fact that he was still without a compartment to stow his belongings as well as himself only served to further dampen any enthusiasm he had left; however, some of it returned upon meeting his housemates, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley in the aisle of one of the last cars.

"Hi Harry… Hi Ginny… every where's full…" panting slightly from the exertion of pulling his trunk behind him for so long Neville continued to speak, "I can't find a seat…" It wasn't a lie… not exactly. He had passed a few compartments that had room, but he hadn't dared to enter into them, mostly because the majority of those compartments were filled with upperclassmen and or Slytherin students who wouldn't have been too eager to share their compartment with a Gryffindor even if just for the sake of the rivalry between the two houses. Mostly though it was because he didn't feel comfortable with intruding upon people he didn't know, and he expressed as much in a low murmuring voice to Ginny as she squeezed her way past him into the practically empty compartment just behind him. Still, he, along with Harry, followed the red haired fourth year's lead.

The compartment's original occupant was a blonde haired girl with pale eyes that had a strange quality about them, which made it seem almost as if, instead of looking at him, she was looking through him to the things he'd rather no one ever saw. She, as it turned out, was an acquaintance of Ginny; a year mate from Ravenclaw, known as Loony Lovegood. Her real name though, was Luna.

Not even Luna's connection to the youngest Weasley could ease the awkward self consciousness Neville felt about sharing a compartment with the odd girl all the way to the student drop-off point. There was just something about her that made him nervous. He was very glad when Ginny initiated an attempt at conversation, he even felt himself holding back laughter at a few points; for example when she very matter-of-factly informed Harry of his identity. The feeling didn't last long however as she had turned her eyes on him and inquired as to who he was. Her eyes, had unnerved him, and he had managed to mumble out that he was nobody, earning him a quick chastisement from Ginny in the process. After that he was eager to change the subject in any way he could… anything to get the atmosphere to lighten again, and he did the first thing that came to mind. He brought out his newest plant. A present he had acquired from his uncle Algie for his birthday.

Plants were something he was comfortable with. He was confident speaking about them, and the mood of the peculiar quartet was once again moderately improved as he talked about his Mimbulus Mimbletonia… at least until he tried to show off the plant's defense mechanism, and wound up covering the compartment as well as its occupants in thick green stink sap. A more aptly named goop there never was.

It was embarrassing, even if a little funny, but the embarrassment won out as Cho Chang had chosen the exact moment after the malodorous slime had erupted from every boil on the plants surface to poke her head into their cabin. It wasn't embarrassment for himself mind- though it was embarrassing to have something like that happen especially since he was supposed to be a plant expert- but rather it was embarrassment for Harry. Neville could imagine how mortified he'd have been if it had been Cedric to walk in and see him dripping with green goo and smelling like a month worth of the Weasley twins unwashed socks.

And just like that the atmosphere was heavy again, even though Ginny used a rather ingenious cleaning spell to rid them and the compartment of the stink sap. So, he was without a doubt relieved when Hermione and Ron showed up nearly an hour later. The two managed to keep Luna's unnerving eyes away from him, so that he didn't have to see the peculiar far off, knowing look that they held. They also succeeded in holding Harry and Ginny's attention, allowing him to spend the rest of the ride surveying the greenery out the window as the train continued on its way virtually unnoticed, only having to add to the conversations flitting about the compartment occasionally.

The sorting ceremony was much the same, but different in ways. The new students were led into the Great Hall after the older students had seated themselves at their respective tables, just like every year. The sorting hat sang a song, a different one from any of the years previous, and it sorted the new arrivals into houses, some going to Slytherin, some to Ravenclaw, some to Gryffindor, and some to Hufflepuff, just as it did every year. There were the customary beginning of term announcements—new staff, cautions about the forest (mostly for the first years, but also, Neville was quite certain, for the Weasly twins and the Golden-Trio as well), a warning to take the Hat's song to heart (though Neville got the impression that the new witch- who managed to remind him a little bit of Trevor- at the staff table wasn't so pleased with the Headmaster for adding that brief caution to the list of announcements), and then the usual "_Tuck in_," as the welcome feast commenced.

Neville found his eyes drifting to the Hufflepuff table more than once during the meal. It was, he supposed, a force of habit more than anything. He knew Cedric wouldn't be there, and not just for the obvious reasons. Cedric had been a seventh year upon his death; he wouldn't have been returning to Hogwarts anyway. Still, he couldn't help the small pang in his chest each time he took notice of the handsome Hufflepuff's absence.

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_Thus ends Part II of Nedric, I hope you enjoyed this installment, as well as the last. This will be the last installment for a while as I'm moving AGAIN! I seem to lack the ability to stay in one town/city/province/etc. for very long. It can be bothersome at times. (sigh)_

Please review. It makes me happy, and criticisms make me work harder, so I'd appreciate those as well.

**Hugs and Oreos!  
**_Smurf_


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